Unique Bloodline

Because he didn't have any weapons at home, Jason searched for the different types of weapons that were the most suitable to learn with the Azure feisty Ape technique.

In the end, he found out that gauntlets and daggers were the most suitable for this technique.

Jason was tempted to purchase gauntlets but he also wanted to get something sharp as his body was still too feeble to kill or heavily injure beasts with his fists or gauntlets alone.

Only humans with a strong physique would use gauntlets or other blunt weapons and Jason was definitely not one of them.

As he browsed through the online weapon store he found a few thousand types of daggers of every grade.

Jason was overwhelmed to see the abundance of weapons but the price for most daggers wasn't something he could handle, so he had to narrow down his search further.

With a little bit of more than 130,000 credits left, he could afford a grade-1 dagger whose price ranged from  20,000 to a few hundred thousand credits.

After thinking for a few minutes, Jason realized that he would have to buy a weapon sooner or later, as he would venture into the wild zones somewhere in the future.

He carefully read through the descriptions of a few dozen daggers within his budget and found something that attracted his attention.

[Low Tier-1 Jade Iron Dagger] Jade Iron, tempered in the flames of a Two-star azure flame, able to pierce through mid-awakened ranked beasts.

Price: 30,000 Credits

A Tier-1 weapon in this price range that could pierce through a mid awakened beast was extremely good.

There were many grades for weapons and armors but the most commonly used ones were Tier-1 to Tier-3 while Tier 4 and 5 were already fairytales. 

Jason didn´t know a single human with a tier-4 or tier-5 weapon, as such he regarded them as legends.

There were also mana and soul weapons which are special due to their certain effects.

Mana weapons could enhance the weapon's strength or amplify an element, while soul weapons would grow within the soul world until the material used for the soul weapon would reach its maximum potential. 

Soul weapons could resonate with their contractor and enhance one's strength better than mana weapons if well nurtured.

While normal graded weapons were already expensive, mana and soul weapons could only be purchased by rich merchants, nobles, higher royalty, and big families.

Soul weapons were more expensive than mana weapons because the materials needed were super rare and the weapon's ability to grow and adjust its strength to that of its master was extremely powerful.

Each Tier could be divided into four segments indicating the capabilities within their grade also called Low, Mid, High, Peak.

Low Tier-1 weapons were commonly only able to pierce the hide of weaker awakened beasts while Peak Tier-1 weapons could pierce the skin of evolved beasts without the need to focus on the weak spots only.

He wasn't sure why the price for this dagger was so low but the website only allowed genuine transactions and would severely punish fraudsters so he had nothing to worry about the authenticity of his purchase.

Thus, Jason purchased the Low Tier-1 Jade Iron Dagger and was left with around 100,000 Credits.

This would give him the chance to purchase two small mana stones if needed.

The parcel with the dagger arrived around afternoon and Jason began to learn the Azure feisty Ape technique that had been modified to use with Daggers.

Four days later one could see a small but handsome youth running through the park sweating and slightly exhausted.

Jason was unforgiving and trained his body really hard. In the last few days, he also focussed on eating plenty of healthy food in conjunction with training, which resulted in him growing some muscles and gaining a little bit of weight.

He was still malnourished but his physique got better with each passing day.

Over the last week, his mana core had continued to absorb mana and in a few days at most, Jason would reach the requirements to break into the 3rd Novice rank.

His mastery of the Azure feisty Ape technique improved exponentially while each sequence became more refined.

Artemis was still sleeping inside the soul world which worried him a bit because it had already been a week but sensing her health he knew that she was more than healthy.

Inside his soul world, he inspected Artemis for a while when he noticed that the feeble color enveloping her was becoming denser.

This was probably because of the mana she had absorbed.

The absorbed mana was probably able to initiate the mutation that had previously backlashed but Jason wasn't sure about that.

During the last week, Jason chatted a lot with Greg which surprised him quite a bit.

Greg messaged him the day after his soul-awakening and since then they became friends? Or at least chat-buddies.

Greg´s parents had something against Jason because they thought Greg was persuaded to take a different first soulbond than the one which would have been better in their opinion, though this was far from true.

Six days after Greg had formed his soulbound contract with the reinforced horned bull, an advanced potential test found out that the non-elemental bull had a hidden bloodline that normal tests had failed to detect.

This hidden bloodline belonged to a rare race called "Lesser Minotaur" race which also formed small groups and was almost like one of the foreign invading races except for its lack of intelligence.

Greg persuaded his parents to let his soulbond get tested for his potential because he believed that Jason wouldn't lie to him, even if Greg wasn't completely sure why he did that.

They never talked much with each other but Greg felt comfortable around Jason which wasn't the case with his other ex-classmates who would only flock around him due to his strength and background.

In the beginning, he wasn't sure why he believed Jason so much, but after seeing his golden eyes Greg's suspicion was completely shattered.

After finding out about the reinforced horned bull's hidden bloodline Greg´s family calmed down and they saw Jason in a better light.

But, they were still suspicious as it could have been a stroke of luck or a mere coincidence.

How should a previously blind youth be able to find out something that normal tests couldn't?

They paid huge amounts of credits to let the reinforced horned bull calf be tested for its potential and it was only because of that, that they had found out about its bloodline.

Normally nobody would go to such lengths to make a test about something like that without prior knowledge as it was a waste of credits and time.

Nevertheless, they had to thank Jason as this bull calf was a much better first soulbond than every other beast he could have chosen in the C-Grade Beast Pagoda.

Greg also informed Jason that he would move away in a few weeks into an A-grade City called Cyro City where he would attend one of the most prestigious high schools.

His parents knew some headteachers from the school and due to Greg´s exceptional exam result with his 4-star soul-awakening, it wouldn't be a problem for him to enroll and get admitted to the school.

After receiving this information Jason was slightly shocked.

He wasn't sure if Greg was his friend but he was the only one at his age, who he chatted with.

The fact that Greg would move away, into one of the two A-grade cities on Astrix, caused Jason to feel sad and even jealous.

School would start its first semester in mid-August and there were still 6 weeks left but Greg had to move in around four weeks.

Jason wasn't even sure if he could apply for a school in a C-grade city… He felt that the gap between him and Greg would only widen as he would get high-ranked support from professional instructors and many resources to increase his rank, while Jason would be left behind.

Even if Greg´s parents were still suspicious about Jason they wanted to thank him so they asked Greg to enquire with him if he needed something.

Jason didn't expect to receive such help and he had to think for a while.

He needed many things so he wasn't entirely sure what to ask for, but considering the dangers of lacking soul energy, for example, when Artemis would evolve, Jason got scared.

"Greg, I've thought of something." Jason started before he hesitantly asked,

"Can you check with your parents if they can get me permission to learn the Heaven's Hell technique? My Credits and contributions are too low and I don't know when I'll be able to attend a high school or if this high school has the permission to hand it over... "

The Heaven's Hell technique was a soul energy refining technique that would forcibly use soul energy and replenish it continuously.

To put it simply, soul energy could be compared to a muscle.

If one didn't use one´s muscles they would remain at their weakest possible without any change.

However, using the muscle and exhausting it consistently would force the muscle to be tempered and strengthened. 

And this is where the importance of high soul energy came into the picture.

Having more soul energy meant you had more muscles to strengthen. Though this was a hard and laborious task, the results gave higher benefits.

If one were to compare Jason and Greg's soul energy, Jason would need to train for a long time. This was because an increase of soul energy by one point was an increase of 100%, but for Greg with his soul energy slightly below 500, the increase of 1 point was equivalent to 0.2%.

This was because the Heaven's Hell technique followed the exponential growth principles and Greg had a better foundation while Jason was way behind him.

But even if this was the case, Jason had the chance to increase his soul energy with the Heaven's Hell technique.

Jason also consulted Greg about the Azure feisty Ape manual and some of his flaws as Jason wasn't entirely sure if everything he did was correct.

A few days passed, and he had received no message from Greg, causing him to wonder if something had happened.

Maybe it was too rude for him to ask about the permission to use Heaven's Hell? But that shouldn't be the case as it was a civilian technique which everyone could use with enough credits and some contribution like hunting beasts or similar jobs.

Jason wasn't sure but he didn't think too much about it, as he practiced the Azure feisty Ape technique with the dagger modification.

Meanwhile, Artemis was still in her deep slumber.

His mana core almost reached its limit and Jason was close to the breakthrough into the 3rd Novice stage which made him happy.

Jason's slim body became more muscly and his weight finally reached the common standards for a skinny youth.

He was happy to notice that his hard work was finally starting to pay off. As he continued to train with his dagger, he suddenly received a call.